With the crash of the forum, I started digging through old documents, and found quite a few pictures of the tear down and rebuilding of my 69 GT500 #1584. So I thought I would start a new thread, a shortened and cliff note type version:
So we will start with humble beginnings of how the car looked when I purchased it from our very own, world renowned "Shelby Hunter" Dominic D.
(http://www.saacforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=182.0;attach=415;image)
Now, it does not look that bad from 20 feet away, until you see a close up of the paint and previous bodywork
(http://www.saacforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=182.0;attach=413;image)
Then you get an idea of what I was going to be working with.
A trip to the media blaster, and some time being subjected to a series of crushed walnut shells propelled by a copious amount of air pressure, and what we thought would be a rusty chassis, thankfully didn't turn out that way. Two small areas of outer body rust were found, both on the passenger quarter panel.
(http://www.saacforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=182.0;attach=444;image)
(http://www.saacforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=182.0;attach=446;image)
Keep the photos and stories coming ! I never came across your original post so am looking forward to more !
That Shelby is beautiful
Being a March 31st 1969 build, I remember some arguments between ;D "two members" ;D about whether the car came with the big (KKX) suspension (now documented as the earliest car to date thanks to Mongo), a space saver spare, and I think the ribbed drivers front inner fender panel. The big suspension was the easy one, the space saver spare took a little more time and muscle.
Yes to big suspension
No to space saver spare
Yes (I think ;D ) to ribbed inner fender panel
Digging under the carpet found floors in beautiful condition, and three partial build sheets stuck to both the floor and the carpet underlayment
With a little computer wizardry assistance, a decent build sheet composite was created.
I was asked about paint stripping via PM, I chose to find someone who used crushed walnut shells to do the stripping as it was not supposed to do any damage to the body. While being stripped, I asked that the original fender stripes not be stripped off, both for the purpose of saving the original paint underneath, but because I was concerned that stripping that hard on the fiberglass would damage the front fenders.
After stripping, my paint tech rep and I spent several days mixing a modern day batch match for "Grabber Orange". Sometimes tinting the white base, sometimes not. Time and time again, over and over again. Differences in the mix down to 1/10th of a gram could make all the difference.
Quote from: Bill on January 24, 2018, 06:19:09 AM
Being a March 31st 1969 build, I remember some arguments between ;D "two members" ;D about whether the car came with the big (KKX) suspension (now documented as the earliest car to date thanks to Mongo), a space saver spare, and I think the ribbed drivers front inner fender panel. The big suspension was the easy one, the space saver spare took a little more time and muscle.
Yes to big suspension
No to space saver spare
Yes (I think ;D ) to ribbed inner fender panel
If I remember right it was the space saver spare bracket . Whether it had a space saver spare or not was never in question according to Mongo.
Quote from: Bob Gaines on January 27, 2018, 06:49:01 PM
If I remember right it was the space saver spare bracket . Whether it had a space saver spare or not was never in question according to Mongo.
I believe you are right, and it started with me posting this picture..Maybe Ed will remember and chime in. ;)
Couple of other random shots for this evening
On the space saver bracket. There has to be a point in time where non big spindles stop and and yet use up the inventory of F70x15 tires and big spindles come in and then the delete sheets reflect the introduction of the F60x15 tires and the space saver bracket came to be. Hertz cars good example introduced big and use up the old F60x15 tires. All stations at assembly plant are not up to speed at snap of your fingers. takes time to get all parts in place and add operations and changes to the assembly time procedures and instruct workers of change. "the rule of the assembly line formen is never stop the line from building units"!
"there has to be some kind of overlap or crossover when making" "production
run changes"!
ps FoMoCo is not going to throw out tires and spindles until they use them up!
mongo
sorry meant to say Hertz cars for 1969 git the big spindles but used up the E70x15 tires.
mongo
I remember getting the car out one warm day and playing with my old shops 10,000PSI heated pressure washer, then thinking, maybe I went too far ;D
One step back, need to further address floors and build sheets
Other items found under the carpet
Quote from: Bill on January 28, 2018, 08:18:08 AM
Other items found under the carpet
Looks like your car failed one or more of the inspections and had to be fixed at one point at Ford. Nice find finding the travelers sheets. Not sure if its a good thing that the car had issues but its just part of its history
Quote from: J_Speegle on January 28, 2018, 05:13:48 PM
Quote from: Bill on January 28, 2018, 08:18:08 AM
Other items found under the carpet
Looks like your car failed one or more of the inspections and had to be fixed at one point at Ford. Nice find finding the travelers sheets. Not sure if its a good thing that the car had issues but its just part of its history
Reading and discussing with Mongo the cars built the weeks before and the weeks after mine, specifically to be shipped to AO Smith, and you start to see a pattern based on the warranty repair sheets. In my cars case, even the floor plug on the drivers side front floor was never pushed in and installed correctly (picture above), which caused the excessive aging to the build sheets and carpet underlayment over the life of the car. Radio replaced (pulled from 1878, 6/25/69), lug nut recall(6/4/69), starter(10/16/69), throttle sticking issues (10/1/69), and a few other minor issues not listed, but dealer repaired at Gotham Ford in the first year that Mr Moscini owned the car
Attached: Some additional spray out cards
Great story, always amazed what we find in cars in disassembly